Reviews in High Low / Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival

Rob Clough reviews a bunch of comics he picked up at SPX including "Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales", "Tales of Good Ol' Snoop Doggy Dogg" and "Losers Weepers #1" on High Low (click to read it).

He also reviews my table-mate Sophia Wiedeman's "My Terrible Tearable Heart", new comic friend L. Nichol's "Jumbly Junkery #7" and "J J #8", both of which I just picked up this weekend at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, as well as Julia Wertz's excellent "Legend of Rebob Mountain", Noah Van Sciver's depressingly funny eponymous mini comic and Jeff Zwirek's beautifully designed "Pinstriped Bloodbath" anthology of Chicago artists, all of which I also picked up at SPX.

The Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival was the first local fest that I haven't had a table at this year, and I was very upset by that fact. Of all the cons I've attended, this one seemed to jibe with my personal aesthetic the most. Nothing against traditional super-hero comics, but they're just not my bag and there were none to be found at this particular con. There were only about fifty or so exhibitors, and they seemed to all be really great. The place was packed the entire three hours I was there, and I almost couldn't make it to the next table without running into friends. There was no fee to get in, which undoubtedly helped combat the fact that it was sort of hailing outside.

I picked up some wonderful looking new (to me, anyway) comics at the con including a bunch of new ones from Matt Wiegle, an absolutely insane looking one called "I Want You" by Lisa Hanawalt that features lots of anthropomorphic animals wearing human clothing (one of my own favorite things to draw) and a new anthology featuring a two-pager about pigeons by yours truly. The anthology is called "SuperTalk", and it has pieces by some really really great artists that I've had the pleasure of working with in the past.

Reviews n' Such

Everything I'm working on lately is in the sketching stage, so that's why I haven't really posted any new artwork lately. It's not because I'm sitting around in my underwear watching old footage of Roosevelt Franklin, I swear!

"I Saw You..." has been getting lots of reviews, which is good. I still haven't received my contributor's copy, so I can't give it a review myself, but here's what the pros say:

The New York Times
The Stranger
Publisher's Weekly
Pop Matters
Brews and Books
Sandbox World
Philadelphia City Paper
Metro International
Random House Library Services
Venus Zine
Bookgasm
Read About Comics

...plus Julia Wertz, the brains behind it all, was interviewed about the book here:

Heeb Magazine
The Greenpoint Gazette
WNYC

I Saw You...Comics Anthology

A long long time ago, I saw that Julia Wertz was looking for comic artists to interpret their favorite "Missed Connections" posting on Craig's List (if you haven't ever browsed them, I HIGHLY recommend it...both heartbreaking and hilarious). It's a great idea, so I immediately drew one up and sent it in.

Originally it was just going to be a xeroxed mini-comic, but it has since been expanded into a book published by Three Rivers Press (a division of Random House!). Tons of great artists signed on to the project, and now I'm sort of embarrassed by my submission. If I'd known what was to become of this, I surely would have spent more time and effort, but oh well.

It just came out, so buy it on Amazon here or at your local comic shop. I think some of us will be signing books at the release party at Desert Island in Brooklyn on Feb. 20th, so c'mon out. You can see a list of the contributors here (Aaron Renier, Adam Kidder, Gabrielle Bell, Jeffrey Brown, Laura Park, Julia Wertz, Peter Bagge, Sam Henderson, Tom Hart, etc., etc.!)

Birdcage Bottom Books is Born!

Winning the Xeric self-publishing award has got me scrambling to get this book published. In order to get distribution, you've got to be thinking (at least) four months in advance! Diamond is the biggest distribution company in comics, but if you're a small fish like me, you've got to convince them that you're worth distributing. They prefer established publishing companies that put out books constantly, but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?

So, as part of the ruse to appear that I'm not just one harried individual I've created a publishing company...Birdcage Bottom Books ("The best pages for your cages!"). That also meant quickly putting together a logo & website. It's not the best work I've ever done, but it'll have to do for now.

In addition, I've been reading any self-publishing guides I can get my hands on (thanks so much, Tompkins Square Library). In my research, I came across a former Xeric grant winner, Lars Martinson, who was nice enough to put a series of posts dealing with his self-publishing experiences on his website. He ended up using Top Shelf comics, an established alternative comic publisher, to sub-distribute his book. The good side is that Top Shelf knows what they're doing and Lars gets risidual advertisement through them. The bad side is that they take an additional cut of the already paltry sum the self-publisher ends up making off of his books (should they sell).

Top Shelf happens to be based in Marietta, GA which is where I grew up. We're going to visit my family in about two weeks, so I've set up a meeting with Chris Staros at Top Shelf to see if he might sub-distribute my book as well. He warned me that they've already got too much on their plates for 2009, but I figure it can't hurt to try.

In other publishing news, Jeffrey Brown was nice enough to give me a flattering quote for the back cover of my book (he's a Top Shelf artist, too!). Kevin Huizenga gave me some good advice and Chris Ware wrote me an unexpected letter apologizing for his policy of no longer giving out quotes. Honestly, it was just a treat to get ANY correspondence from my all-time favorite cartoonist, and it was as charming and self-depricating as you might expect. Julia Wertz also responded kindly to my call for advice/criticism/quotes, and she let me know that the anthology she's editing should be out any day (I've got a piece in it...Adam Kidder, too). I'm still waiting to hear from several others.

Hopin' for help

I sent out a bunch of cards with this image and a written plea out to some of my favorite comic artists in hopes of getting feedback/criticism on the comic collection I've submitted for the Xeric grant. So far I've sent it to Chris Ware, Jordan Crane, James Kochalka, Jeffrey Brown, Julia Wertz, Graham Annable. I'm planning on also soliciting Paul Hornschemeier, Raina Telgemeier, Jeremy Tinder, Kevin Huizenga, Seth and Renee French.

I already feel star-struck.